Weather and Traffic

Tropical development takes a holiday

The tropical Atlantic has quieted down for the holiday weekend. The National Hurricane Center was watching two waves far to the east, but gave them less than a 30 percent chance of developing.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Erika were dumping rain on Puerto Rico as the system finally began to drift to north. San Juan was under a flash flood warning on Saturday.

Florida, meanwhile, was in for isolated storms thanks to a stalled front in the central part of the state. Up to 1 to 3 inches of rain were possible in some areas hit by slow moving storms, forecasters said.

We’ve been lucky to have a slow hurricane season so far. There’s a lot more to come, with the statistical peak arriving next Thursday. As we enter the latter part of the season, we can look for fewer storms to develop in the deep Atlantic and more to spin up in the western Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

Last year, we had already made it to Tropical Storm Josephine at this point and had six more storms to go, through Hurricane Paloma. For a comprehensive video view of the entire 2008 season, check out this online movie prepared by NASA.

A news release on the page describes the production process. (Hat tip to Tom Sarko of the Palm Beach Day Academy.)